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Warlock’s Apprentice: Weird Fantasy Items

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Warlock’s Apprentice: Weird Fantasy Items

Magic is capable of so very much. Here are some potent and flavorful magic items of particular weirdness that can quickly spice up your adventuring.

Binding Oath

Scroll, very rare (requires attunement by a cleric or paladin)

This lengthy scroll is the testimony of a pious individual’s adherence to their faith. The author has emphatically rewritten these claims many times, and its two slim, metal rollers are wrapped in yards of parchment. When you attune to the item, you rewrite certain passages to align with your own religious views.

You can use an action to throw the scroll at a Huge or smaller creature you can see within 30 feet of you. Make a ranged attack roll. On a hit, the scroll unfurls and wraps around the creature. The target is restrained until you take a bonus action to command the scroll to release the creature; this, or missing the target, causes the scroll to reroll itself. If the restrained target’s alignment is the opposite of yours along the law/chaos or good/evil axes, you can use a bonus action to cause the writing to blaze with light, dealing 7 (2d6) radiant damage to the target.

A creature, including the restrained target, can use an action to make a DC 20 Strength check to tear the scroll apart. On a success, the scroll is destroyed. Such an attempt causes the writing to blaze with light, dealing 7 (2d6) radiant damage to both the creature making the attempt and the restrained creature, whether or not the attempt is successful. The restrained creature can also use an action to make a DC 20 Dexterity check to slip free of the scroll. This action also triggers the damage effect.

Once the scroll is used, it cannot be used again until you have completed a long rest.

Doppelganger Ointment

Wondrous item, rare

This ceramic jar contains 1d4 + 1 doses of a thick, creamy substance that smells faintly of pork fat. The jar and its contents weigh 1/2 pound. Applying a single dose to your body allows you to change your appearance, as per the Change Appearance option of the spell alter self.

If you add a piece of a specific creature (a single hair, nail paring, or drop of blood is enough), the ointment becomes more powerful, allowing you to flawlessly imitate that creature, so long as its body shape is humanoid and within one size category of your own. You gain advantage on Charisma checks made to convince others you are that specific creature, provided they have not seen you change form. While the ointment is in effect, you can use a bonus action to return to your regular form and an action to return to the form of the mimicked creature.

The effects of the ointment last for 24 hours or until washed off with an alcohol solution.

Effigy Doll

Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

This Tiny, crudely fashioned doll can be used to attack an enemy from a great distance. You must possess a piece of a creature—blood, hair, scales, or something similar—or a small, unique item belonging to the creature that it values: a ring, scarf, or other possession. You combine this item with the doll in a ritual, during a short rest, attuning it to the target. (This attunement is not the same as typical magic item attunement and does not count toward the total number of items to which the target can attune.) Once attuned, you can use an action to attack the doll in some manner, typically driving a pin into a limb or briefly applying flame to it. Doing so causes pain in the attuned creature, causing 10 (3d6) psychic damage to the target. The target must be on the same plane as the doll for this attack to succeed. A remove curse cast on either the target or the doll will break the attunement, and a new piece or item must be obtained to reattune the doll to the target.

You can also attune yourself to the doll. This counts toward the total number of magic items to which you can attune. As an action, you can transfer your soul into the doll, animating it. While your soul inhabits the doll, your body is unconscious and in a state of suspended animation, without need for food or water, and it does not age. As the doll, you are Tiny and have a speed of 20 feet, 3 Strength, and 16 Dexterity. You have the full range of senses you normally possess in your body. You gain advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. You do not need to breathe and have immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and falling damage. You cannot speak and cannot cast spells as the doll’s limbs are not refined and articulated enough for somatic components. While you remain motionless, you are indistinguishable from a normal doll. As long as you are within 500 feet of your body, you can use a bonus action to leave the doll and return to your body. As the doll, you have an AC 14 and 5 hit points. If the doll is destroyed, your soul returns to your body at the end of the round.

Elixir of the Ooze

Potion, rare

When you drink this cloudy, gelatinous green-gray liquid, your body becomes extremely malleable and flexible, and your flesh turns slightly translucent. For the next hour, you become immune to bludgeoning damage. Due to the flexibility of your skeleton, your gait becomes awkward, reducing your movement by 10 feet. However, you do not need to expend any extra movement to crawl, and you can stand up from a prone position using only 5 feet of movement.

You can compress your body in order to move through spaces that would normally restrict your passage. You can move through areas large enough for a creature one size smaller than you without having to squeeze. You can squeeze through spaces large enough for a creature two sizes smaller than you.

Mi-Go Battle Husk

Armor (husk), very rare (requires attunement)

A bizarre biotechnical creation of the space-faring mi-go, this armor is actually the husk of a Large humanoid creature, preserved, reinforced, and animated with precisely grown fungus. The head, internal organs, and many of the bones have been removed, leaving a hollow area inside. If you are Small or Medium, you can step into a standing husk, and it will seal itself around you, extending fungal attachments that allow you to control the husk as if it were a part of your own body. Donning the battle husk is swift, taking only a single round. Exiting the husk takes longer, requiring 2 rounds for the attachments to withdraw and the husk to unseal and allow you to exit.

While wearing the battle husk, you have an AC of 16, and you gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons. Your Strength increases to 16 (or you receive a +2 bonus to Strength if it is already 16 or higher), and you are considered to be Large while wearing the husk.

Mimir Cauldron

Wondrous item, legendary

To use this ancient, patinated-bronze vessel, you must fill it with expensive wine mixed with rare herbs as well as powdered gemstones and precious metals worth a total of 1,500 gp. You then immerse the severed head of an intelligent creature of Medium size within the cauldron’s contents. The magic of the cauldron animates the head, which floats to the surface. The creature’s head knows everything it knew when it was alive. You may consult the head and garner information from it. If the creature was hostile to you in life, it will be unwilling to work with you and will need to be coerced. When you require information on a particular subject, roll a DC 15 Charisma check (or specific skill check as appropriate). If you can provide appropriate incentive—threats against the creature’s loved ones or offers to assist those they care about, for example—then you gain advantage on the roll. The head of an indifferent creature requires a DC 10 Charisma check. If you fail a Charisma check by 5 or more, the head may lie to you or offer incorrect information. The head of a friendly creature requires no checks and will freely give information to assist you as it can for as long as it remains in the cauldron. A head remains active in the cauldron for up to 7 days before the magical effects end. The effects can be ended early by dumping out the contents of the cauldron. You must complete a long rest before using the cauldron again, and each time a new head is used, you must replenish the material necessary to activate the cauldron.

Scent Sponge

Wondrous item, uncommon

You can use this sea sponge to collect the scent of creatures and objects. You use an action to touch the sponge to a creature or object, and the scent of the target is absorbed into the sponge. You can use an action to wipe the sponge on another creature or object, masking its natural scent with the one stored in the sponge. The target will retain the scent for up to 1 hour or until it is replaced by another scent from the sponge or is cleaned away, requiring a vigorous washing of at least 10 minutes with soap and water or similar materials. When a creature or object has its scent absorbed by the sponge, it gives off no smell and cannot be detected or tracked by scent for 1 hour.

Staff of the Scion

Staff, very rare (requires attunement by a cleric, druid, warlock, or wizard)

This unwholesome staff is crafted of a material that appears to be somewhere between weathered wood and dried meat. It weeps beads of red liquid that are thick and sticky like tree sap but smell of blood and is topped with a crystalized yellow eye with a rectangular pupil, like the eye of a goat. You can wield the staff as a magic quarterstaff that grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it and deals an extra 7 (2d6) fire damage on a successful hit. If you take fire damage while wielding the staff, you gain advantage on attack rolls with it until the end of your next turn. While holding the staff you are resistant to fire. The staff has 10 charges for the following properties. It regains 1d6 + 4 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the eye liquifies as the staff shrivels and twists into a blackened, smoking ruin and is destroyed.

Ember Cloud. You can use an action to expend 2 charges to release a cloud of burning embers from the staff. Each creature within 10 feet of you must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) fire damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one. Anything within the area of the embers is lightly obscured to creatures outside of the area. The ember cloud lasts until the start of your next turn.

Spells. You can use an action to spend 1 or more of the staff’s charges to cast one of the following spells from it, using your spell save DC: augury (2 charges), barkskin (2 charges), confusion (4 charges), entangle (1 charge), or wall of fire (4 charges).

Wand of Relieved Burdens

Wand, uncommon

This wand has 7 charges. While holding it, you can use an action to expend 1 of its charges and touch a creature with the wand. If the creature is blinded, charmed, deafened, exhausted, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, or stunned, the condition is removed from the creature and transferred to you. You suffer the condition for the remainder of its duration or until removed. The wand regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the wand’s last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the wand crumbles to dust and is destroyed…

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